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Secret switch in Ankara
U.S. President Donald Trump was secretly moved from Air Force One to a smaller C-32A jet during his trip to Ankara for the NATO summit after a threat that Air Force One could be targeted by a shoulder-fired missile, according to a person briefed on the matter.
“a shoulder-fired missile could be targeted by a shoulder-fired missile”
The Secret Service deemed the threat “credible and imminent,” prompting an extraordinary operation in which Trump and a small group of aides used a catering truck to switch from the big presidential aircraft to the nondescript C-32A jet for the flight out of Turkey on July 8, while Air Force One departed separately carrying senior administration officials, White House staff and the traveling press corps.
Trump told reporters that he made the switch at the direction of the Secret Service and said, “I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk,” adding that it would be the one “they would be more likely to go for.”
Douglas Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, said the threat may have involved a heat-seeking missile that “can kind of come out of nowhere” because it does not send out detectable radio waves, and he pointed to the Iranian SA-67 and Russia’s 9K333 Verba as examples.
The operation’s trigger was tied to heightened tensions with Iran, which borders Turkey, and the Washington Post first reported the details more than a month after the July 8 maneuver.
CIA doubts, press protests
Israeli intelligence passed to the CIA was treated with skepticism by U.S. officials, with one official describing reports of threats against Trump’s life as “Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed as low confidence.”
The Washington Post reported that the warning led to the secret maneuver on July 8, but the CIA declined to comment and the Israeli Embassy in Washington had not responded to a request for details.
After the revelations, US journalists protested that they may have been used as “bait” in the Iran security operation, with WANA reporting that the switch sparked criticism that press and government personnel could have been exposed to danger without their prior knowledge.
Aaron Blake, a senior CNN reporter, said journalists felt they had been turned, without their knowledge, into “bait in the line of fire,” as Reuters, CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times were named among outlets raising questions about the security operation and risks to journalists.
The dispute also broadened into debate over transparency, as WANA said the US Department of Justice sought to question New York Times reporters and the Pentagon revoked the security clearance of former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.
Congressional briefing demanded
Senate Democrats demanded a briefing on what happened, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying, “The Senate should be immediately briefed on the Iranian threats against the President,” and calling it “unacceptable that Congress was kept in the dark.”
““The Senate should be immediately briefed on the Iranian threats against the President,””
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told CNN that he wanted to know “what precautions were taken to make sure that all of the passengers on that Air Force One,” referring to the aircraft judged too dangerous for Trump to fly on.
The White House communications director Steven Cheung did not dispute the Washington Post’s account and said, “The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff.”
The Guardian reported that journalists who thought they were traveling with Trump on the older Air Force One were advised to keep their window shades in the press cabin closed, and it said Trump later told reporters they were “probably on a dangerous flight.”
As the operation’s consequences rippled into the presidential security debate, WANA said the deployment of US Army air-defense systems at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, drew attention, including a mobile Avenger air-defense system and an AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar near the area where Trump plays golf.
